Halloween Event in FIC

Colorful costumes

I went back to FIC on Friday although it was an off day for me to catch up with some work and at the same time join in the festivities of the Halloween Event. The student area on the top floor was turned into the stage for a costume party. I saw many familiar characters, in costumes of cause, and a lot of happy faces enjoying the short break from class. There were staff members, students and a few faculties involved in the activity. But, we were so caught up in the fun than bothered about distinguishing who is who.

Who are these two?

The event was really positive towards student teacher engagement, student advisor engagement and also not forgetting staff faculty engagement. Overall, I would say, the event was a great success in terms of fostering communal relationships. But student involvement was still at the minimal in spite of the large population growth in FIC in recent semesters. Maybe this event wasn't attracting enough interest among the students. Anyway, attendance to events like this is nothing new, I have been meeting the same group of students in these events.

All in characters

Only a handful of students that feel the need of building bonds and friendships through participation in events like this one. Many don't see the long term benefits from participating in extra curricular activities. Or they may be shy or not comfortable with large crowd. Whatever the reasons, their focuses in life are very much different. That is why, at FIC we are very diverse, we have events catering to different interest and needs of the student populations.

BUS200 Introduction to Canadian Business Fundamentals Individual Presentations

Individual Presentation

The individual presentations in the BUS200 Introduction to Canadian Business Fundamentals course in Fraser International College and SFU's Beedie School of Business have just started on week eighth of this semester. The individual presentation is a course component of the overall course. And each student currently enrolled in the course are to select a topic from a list of topics provided to them at the beginning of the semester.

Stressing an interesting point

They are to conduct research and collect appropriate information using the tools provided in the course. They will also have to write a report of their findings and analysis, which they will present in class. Each student is grouped in a specific group coinciding with the weeks in which they will deliver an oral presentation to their fellow classmates. So, on each week, starting from week eight until week twelve, between five to seven students will take turns in their own classes to deliver their individual presentation.

Answering Question

On Tuesday this week, the class that I was assigned to, started with the first group of students doing the individual presentations. Today, I have students from the other two classes doing their individual presentations. And tomorrow, another two different batches of students will be presenting. So, looks like I will be listening to and getting to enjoy a lot of individual presentations from now until the end of the semester. Amazingly, through these individual presentations, majority of these students raise to the occasion and put up really better than expected performances.

Workshop on Creating Awesome LinkedIn Profile

A section of the workshop participants

Fraser International College through the Instructor Advising Program organized a LinkedIn Profile Workshop entitled, "How To Build An Awesome LinkedIn Profile" in Discovery 1 at the main Simon Fraser University campus. I was the workshop facilitator and had the opportunity to speak with a full classroom of eager to learn students. In the workshop, I shared the twenty one key points about building the best resume with the available multimedia tools and sections provided on the online social career profile building platform.

Facilitating the workshop

The LinkedIn Platform is practically used by ninety five percent of today's prospecting employers in their job search process. Some potential employers used the online social platform to find suitable candidates to fill vacant positions and some uses the platform to advertise vacancies. While others may use the platform to verify or evaluate shortlisted candidates. Which brings us to the point of the importance of this social media platform. Especially, for students to learn the finer points of building an awesome career focused profile on LinkedIn.

Another section of the participants

Although, the workshop was only an hour, I fully utilized the time to answer as many queries. And on top of that, provided the opportunity for the participants to have their professional photos taken. I have earlier made prior arrangements with the photography club to extend this service to the students. This LinkedIn workshop is only available once per semester and the next of such workshop will probably be available again in the Spring 2017 semester.

Fall 2016 @FIC Connect

Speakers @FIC Connect

Fraser International College celebrated the success of a their alumnus at a gala event in Hilton Metrotown. The FIC Connect Event which was initiated through the collaboration between the Student Support Department and Instructor Advising of Fraser International College was also an opportunity for the present cohorts of international students to engage with FIC alumnus. The alumnus that was invited to the event were mainly students that are presently pursuing their programs in Simon Fraser University.

Speaking @FIC Connect

Invited to the event was also a panel of speakers. They were selected from among the more senior alumnus and faculty members of Fraser International College. The alumnus were among the first international students that went through the FIC transfer program when Fraser International College were newly setup in Simon Fraser University about ten years ago. These four alumnus speakers has already established themselves in their individual professional careers. They were invited to speak about their journeys towards achieving their personal goals.

Networking @FIC Connect

Other than the alumnus, the other three speakers were faculty members of Fraser International College. The Connect Event created an opportunity for the present batch of students to learn and be inspired through the motivating stories that was shared. Many of the international students were actually moved by these stories and through the stories found solutions to their own challenges. At the end of the speeches, the students were invited to engage with the panel of speakers in a networking session. The event was a success and concluded at approximately ten o'clock at night.

The Final Round of the Fall 2016 Universal Case Competition

Case Competition Judges

We started early in the morning with registration opened before eight in the morning. Surprisingly, when I arrived at about five minutes before the hour, there were already participants, coaches and officials signing in. And to my expectations the organizing committee and volunteers were already on hand to welcome the early arrivals. This semester's organizing committee was really self driven and unbelievably task oriented. So literally, all I needed to do was a walk about. One of the first thing I did was to make sure that the rooms were set for presentations. Also, to make sure that the staff lounge were ready for breakfast. Earlier, I have bought a dozen of donuts and another dozen of muffins from Tim Hortons for that purpose.

Getting Pointers from Team Coach

It was amazingly easy to work with this semester's organizing committee. They had every aspect of the case competition well planned out and managed the event with excellent team work. Their time management was also immaculate. I have to give them full credit for that. In fact, the event was so well planned that we actually completed all the two rounds of the nine team presentations without a problem. One team did not show up and was disqualified. But we did everything else right on time. Managing thirty exciting students all dressed in their finest business attire was a task in itself. And able to complete the record participation case competition final rounds within four hours is commendable.

Two Members of Triple Threat

This semester's case competition organizing committee has set a tough precedent for future committees to follow. The Fall 2016 Universal Case Competition ended today with a tremendous success. We had a total of twenty one teams participating which was a record. And all the twenty one teams went through the first round on three different days. Their presentations were officiated by the eight faculty members of Fraser International College and they helped selected the final ten teams for today's final round competing teams. In the final rounds, we invited two faculty members of Fraser International College to pair with two alumnus as case competition judges.

One of the three Top Speaker

The winning team for this semester's Universal Case Competition is Triple Threat, made up of three first semester international students from Bangladesh and India that was coached by a Simon Fraser University Communications student from Vietnam. Whereas the top three top speakers were two Bangladeshi students and one from China. After the certificate presentation and award ceremony, the attendees were feted to a specially catered Malaysian buffet, sponsored by the college. During the lunch buffet, the participants get to mingle and network with the officials, the organizers, volunteers, and with other participants.

Watching the Sun Setting over The Vancouver City Horizon

Sun Setting At Kushiro Park

I was at Kushiro Park on top of Burnaby Mountain watching the sun slowly setting over the Vancouver city horizon. It was an amazing scene to follow the sun as it was setting over the horizon. That was my first experience watching the evening sun set from a top Burnaby Mountain. I was there with my kids playing with the new camera set I have just purchased. We were shooting different shots using combination of different features on the camera and the new lens. At the same time, as we were learning about the capabilities of the camera, we took the opportunity to shoot some of the great moments before the sun set.

The Transformation

And to my amazement, there were quite a lot of people taking pictures of the sun setting. It was one of those days when the sky was cloudless. We could clearly see Vancouver city. We saw the skyline changing colors, it got reddish from a pure bright yellowish color as the sun started to set behind the mountains on the horizon. It took less than five seconds from seeing the brim of the sun on the edges on the mountain tops to totally losing sight of it. Once the sun was totally blocked by the mountains, the skyline turned reddish and quickly night sky sets in. The transformation was just wonderful to watch.

Autumn has Arrived at SFU

Colorful Tree Leaves

It's Autumn again on campus and the leaves on the trees are changing colors again before they fall from the tree branches. Thus, creates a beautiful galore of colorful scene on campus. On the drive up to campus, I can see the trees along Gaglardi Way providing an amazing scene. And it is even more spectacular on the way down with Mount Baker on the background. That is when the skies are clear. The spectrum of colors from the tree leaves reminds us of the changing in season. This is the only time in the year where we can actually see the arrival of a new season.

Beautiful Colors

The sky too is looking more gloomy and we are expecting the nights to be longer and the days shorter. As we approaches the end of the year, the weather is not the only thing that is changing but we also change to the more appropriate type of outdoor activities. The weather will get colder by the day and our clothing gets thinker and more layers. We are being reminded by mother nature that winter season is just around the corner. So, get ready to embrace whatever the weather brings. For many of the new students that just joined us this semester, winter can be a lot of fun. This is time we bring out our gears for winter activities.

First Round Competition of The Fall 2016 Universal Case Competition

First Round Participants

The first round competition of the Fall 2016 Universal Case Competition got on the way this afternoon at the Fraser International College SFU campus with six teams competing today for the ten final spots in the final rounds to be held later in the month. Another four teams will present tomorrow and another nine teams to present on Wednesday. This semester's participation is a record breaking feat for the organizing committee.

The Universal Case Competition has seen a overwhelming responds from among the international students. There were thirteen teams competing last semester and this semester, the Universal Case Competition received a record breaking twenty three teams applying to participate. And just right before the first round competition, after the confirmation dateline, nineteen teams will be viewing the ten final spots to compete in the finals.

Case Competition

With the increased number of teams competing this semester, the organizing committee with the recommendations of the Case Competition Director changed the team elimination format. The responsibility to select the ten final teams for the final rounds will rest on the team coaches with recommendations from the case competition officials. Each of the eight appointed coaches will select one team from their charges to proceed to the final rounds and the last two to qualify will be picked by the organizing committee.

With this changed in elimination format, the coaches will play a more important role and tasked with making sure they picked the right team to progress. This change will also improved on the level of collaboration between the participants and their coaches. The first round case instruction coincidentally focusses on this week's theme on the SFU campus on the Terry Fox Run Campaign for Cancer Research.

Q&A Session

The teams are to propose activities that will improve on awareness and at the same time to raise funds for the Terry Fox Run Campaign for Cancer Research. Each of the team will proposed activities leading to or after the actual event which uses the Terry Fox Foundation as a platform to raise funds for Cancer Research. Ultimately, their presentation skills and critical thinking skills will be judged upon.